Although we are in different boats you in your boat
and we in our canoe we share the same river of life.
"Peace and happiness are available in every moment.
Peace is every step. We shall walk hand in hand.
There are no political solutions to spiritual problems.Remember: If the Creator put it there, it is in the right place.
The soul would have no rainbow if the eyes had no tears."Tell your people, that since we were promised we should
never be moved, we have been moved five times.
Peace is every step. We shall walk hand in hand.
There are no political solutions to spiritual problems.Remember: If the Creator put it there, it is in the right place.
The soul would have no rainbow if the eyes had no tears."Tell your people, that since we were promised we should
never be moved, we have been moved five times.
An Indian Chief, 1876.
A
A time to
ECCLESIASTES 3.1-8
We lived a life of idleness on our reservations. At times we did not get enough to eat and we were not allowed to hunt. "I was hostile to the white man...We preferred hunting. All we wanted was peace and to be let alone. Soldiers came...in the winter..and destroyed our villages. Then Long Hair (Custer) came...They said we massacred him, but he would have done the same to us. Our first impulse was to escape...but we were so hemmed in we had to fight. After that I lived in peace, but the government would not let me alone. I was not allowed to remain quiet. I was tired of fighting...They tried to confine me..and a soldier ran his bayonet into me. I have spoken.
Tashanka Witko (Crazy Horse), Oglala
The Indians in their simplicity literally give away all that they have--to relatives, to guests of other tribes or clans, but above all to the poor and the aged, from whom they can hope for no return.
Ohiyesa (Charles Alexander Eastman) - Wahpeton Santee Sioux - 1858-1939
"Florida was purchased; treaties with the Florida Indians were made and violated;
gross frauds were perpetrated; dishonorable expedients were resorted to, and
another war provoked. During its protracted continuance of seven years,
bribery and treachery were practiced towards the Exiles and their allies, the Seminole Indians;
flags of truce were violated; the pledged faith of the nation was disregarded....
gross frauds were perpetrated; dishonorable expedients were resorted to, and
another war provoked. During its protracted continuance of seven years,
bribery and treachery were practiced towards the Exiles and their allies, the Seminole Indians;
flags of truce were violated; the pledged faith of the nation was disregarded....
"Men who wielded the influence of Government for the consummation of these crimes,
assiduously labored to suppress all knowledge of their guilt; to keep facts from the popular mind;
to falsify the history of current events, and prevent an exposure of our national turpitude......"
The Great Father told the commissioners that all the Indians had rights to the Black Hills, and that whatever conclusion the Indians themselves would come to would be respected….I am an Indian and am looked on by the whites as a foolish man; but it must be because I follow the advice of the white man
Shunka Witko (Fool Dog)
Although wrongs have been done me I live in hope. I have not got two hearts…
Now we are together again to make peace. My shame is as big as the earth,
although I will do what my friends advise me to do. I once thought that
I was the only man that persevered to be the friend of the white man,
but since they have come and cleaned out our lodges, horses,
and everything else, it is hard for me to believe white men anymore.
Now we are together again to make peace. My shame is as big as the earth,
although I will do what my friends advise me to do. I once thought that
I was the only man that persevered to be the friend of the white man,
but since they have come and cleaned out our lodges, horses,
and everything else, it is hard for me to believe white men anymore.
"We know our lands have now become more valuable. The white people think we do not know their value; but we know that the land is everlasting, and the few goods we receive for it are soon worn out and gone."
Canassatego - Mingo - Six Nations Chief (1700's)
Whole Indian Nations have melted away like snowballs in the sun before the white man's advance. They leave scarcely a name of our people except those wrongly recorded by their destroyers. Where are the Delewares? They have been reduced to a mere shadow of their former greatness. We had hoped that the white men would not be willing to travel beyond the mountains. Now that hope is gone. They have passed the mountains, and have settled upon Tsalagi (Cherokee) land. They wish to have that usurpation sanctioned by treaty. When that is gained, the same encroaching spirit will lead them upon other land of the Tsalagi (Cherokees). New cessions will be asked. Finally the whole country, which the Tsalagi (Cherokees) and their fathers have so long occupied, will be demanded, and the remnant of the Ani Yvwiya, The Real People, once so great and formidable, will be compelled to seek refuge in some distant wilderness. There they will be permitted to stay only a short while, until they again behold the advancing banners of the same greedy host.
Dragging Canoe, Chickamauga Tsalagi
With a prayer in my mouth I dashed unarmed through a line of soldiers my clothes were cut to piece my horse was wounded but I was not hurt, as I reached the door of my lodge my wife handed me my rifle saying "here's your gun...fight"
Heinmot Tooyalaket (Chief Joseph), Nez Perce
If it had not been for the massacre, there would have been a great many more people here now; but after the massacre, who could have stood it? When I made peace with Lieutenant Whitman my heart was very big and happy. The people of Tucson and San Xavier must be crazy. They acted as though they had neither heads nor hearts….they must have a thirst for our blood….These Tucson people write for the papers and tell their own story. The Apaches have no one to tell their story.
Eskiminzin of the Aravaipa Apaches
I don't want to run over the mountains anymore; I want to make a big treaty….I will keep my words until the stones melt….God made the white man and God made the Apache, and the Apache has just as much right to the country as the white man. I want to make a treaty that will last, so that both can travel over the country and have no trouble.
Delshay of the Tonto Apaches
